The experience of attending a therapeutic group during graduation: the obstacle caused by the negative pact

Abstract

Psychotherapeutic groups are increasingly employed in health services. They combine the expansion of the service capacity with critical and purposeful clinical action in face of the individualism of contemporary society. It is important to think about the challenges of training psychologists for this work. This article is based on a difficulty encountered by 4th and 5th year psychology students, acting as trainees, when conducting a psychotherapeutic group. The objective is to analyze the relationship between a denegative pact that obstructs the therapeutic process and the trainees’ initial clinical experience. This text debates aspects of this practice in light of theory. It describes a denegative pact in this group, which opposes the patients' therapeutic process and intensifies the trainees' challenge by challenging the trust in their perceptions and associations, making it more difficult for them to find spaces to intervene. It concludes that the negative pact that hinders the group presents itself, in principle, as a challenge to the trainees, however, through support in the relationship between the trainees and supervision it is possible to transform this challenge into a source of learning.